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Resolution: Get Happy
Piled up in a closet, I have years of “diaries” that started off eagerly January first with brave and not so brave resolutions of how I’m going to be a better person to everyone - friend or foe and lose so many pounds with exercise and diet and watch my spending. And each evening, I’d write in “my diary” about the day - how I felt - but nothing really heavy or splendid or artistic or purposeful - more like I had a great fresh squeezed orange juice this morning. And a grilled cheese at lunch. I skipped dessert at dinner. I kept the TV off for a couple of hours and read about the Saints.
 Why do we always remember what we did with food? Are we all starting the year off with a diet? Are we all fat after the holidays and need to promise ourselves, and maybe God, that I’m going to watch what I munch on that’s not healthy? Dieting is like skirting around the truth. How did I really feel - did I not like someone? Was I rude or critical of someone? Did I fail to help a friend or enemy in need? Did I scream at the children? Did I finish up all the leftovers in the fridge? Did I roll over my heart and fail to love the unloveable?
Of course it depends on one’s age and time in life. By February, in my teens or early adulthood, I was slowing down. No time to stop and think or thank God for the big heart he gave me. By Valentine’s Day, I had lost the surge of recording life. And my spirituality was pretty boring in the middle of a frosty winter. When I saw a host of yellow daffodils, I began to think, like Wordsworth, wow, there is hope and Spring will come. I picked a few and stuck them in a vase (vaaz is how we say it) and smiled.
By the time I hit 40, I had given up on resolution attempts. Why should they come only at the beginning of the year? Why shouldn’t they invent, renew, explode any day of life anytime of the year? We should constantly be recycling ourselves, thinking how to better adore people, listening closer and to find a silent space for God’s push, conversation, challenge, as He tries to use us as His servants which we are first and foremost. Do we even pay attention to the Boss of our lives?
We must remember in our earthy stay, there is so much to do. Sitting around watching soccer matches 24-7 or eating potato chips or crying about how no one cares about you, - these are wastes - these are self-abusive excuses. Our purpose here on earth is to love, to communicate, to visit, to help, to bring joy to someone else, not ourselves. The joy is in the doing. Do we worry if we have sufficient time?
St Peter wrote, one day with the Lord is like a thousand years, if God even measures things by hours and days and years. He is eternal - always - and ours and He will do everything He can to open our eyes, purify our vocabulary, burst our heart with the power of love, and He will hug us close when we weep for fear or sadness or things seem to be falling apart all around, like in these modern times when mother nature has gotten furious about the way we have handled her territory. St Peter tells us that when everything burns up, floods, loses its purpose and protection when even the heavens will be set ablaze and then dissolve, we who love the Lord, who trust and believe He has us in his lovely, generous hands, the whole world is in those giant hands of God, need to take a deep breath and wait. We must not sin from boredom. from lacking power, from loneliness, from jealousy, from envy. We must know I am who I am and I was made by God who patiently holds us up and loves us and has promised us salvation.
IN Psalm 85 we are told: Mercy and Truth have met together; righteousness, and peace have kissed each other. Truth shall spring up from the earth; righteousness shall look down from heaven; righteousness shall go before him; and peace shall be a pathway for his feet.
Whoever we are, whatever we do, no matter what we think about things and Mother Nature, we are told by Isaiah - we are just like grass. Like flowers of the field. The grass withers (if you don’t cut it regularly), the flowers fade (if you don’t prune or pinch off the dead buds or worn out petals) just because the Lord blows upon them. Watch the dandelions swoosh off in a strong wind, like we are having as I write this. But most important whatever God has told us, has done, has promised, these things will stand forever. He is our shepherd who will gently grasp us in his arms and lead those who will follow like mothers lead and embrace their children, their lambs.
So if we need to promise ourselves we are going to do something in 2021, something to make more friends, to wear masks and keep distances, to eat healthy and not hog the Clorox wipes, to contact old lost friends - and maybe enemies who really should not be or are not our enemy, and part of redemption is wiping the hurt and hate out of our own systems —(I love Bob Marley’s Redemption song) pay bills on time, help your neighbor buy a heater to make it through winter, wash the windows of your windows, get the dogs squeaky toys to entertain them, eat blueberries, and march peacefully for Black Lives Matter. Stand by I Am A Man (in Memphis) for a photo because you were there on that march. Walk the river bridge across the Mississippi River to Arkansas. Enjoy the new year and every single day you can get out of bed and smile. Don’t waste time complaining, groaning, crying, worrying. If you just smile at someone, open the door for the aged, answer crazy questions from the toddlers who want to know about this thing call life. All those “whys” that were answered for us, now we answer for our youth. Turn off the TV and take a walk - without the cell phone. Do you think there are cells in heaven? These are doable resolutions.
And I beg of you, take the vaccine for coronavirus because it not only will protect you and me, but those who don’t give a damn about our health, and refuse to help us be happy sufficiently. So start your days singing along with Pharrell Williams “Happy,” which I chose as my theme song for my ordination as an Anglican priest in Uruguay 2015. Be happy, please, in 2021.
~ Rev
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audrey@audreytaylorgonzalez.com
www.audreytaylorgonzalez.com
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